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Unauthorized GoFundMe Pages Set Up After Facebook Killing

GoFundMe shut down multiple fundraising campaigns that claimed to benefit the family of Robert Godwin Sr., the 74-year-old man killed on video that was posted to Facebook. (Published Tuesday, April 18, 2017)

The crowdfunding website shut down all but one of the pages after verifying that page was legitimate. On that page alone, people horrified by the killing of Robert Godwin Sr. donated more than $74,000 toward a $20,000 goal in just one day.

Well-intentioned donors need to be wary of scammers trying to profit off tragedies, consumer advocates say.

"Disasters and tragedies generally attract questionable websites popping up and other untoward things that donors have to watch out for," said Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer of the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance. He spoke at a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) conference on charity and consumer protection issues, held March 21.

Today my father Robert Godwin Sr was murdered in cold blood via FB Live. People have set up GoFundMe accounts fraudulently. Please stop it. pic.twitter.com/lLzWRHBQwN

GoFundMe says cases of fraud on the website are rare. The California company has computer systems that flag "high-risk campaigns," such as those created after a police officer or firefighter has died, and a team of investigators fact checks claims made on the pages, GoFundMe's Head of Trust and Safety, Daniel Gordon, said at the FTC conference.

The company guarantees that donors' funds will go to the right person. If GoFundMe determines that fraud occurred in connection to a page created after Oct. 3, 2016, donors can get as much as $1,000 back, and the beneficiary can have as much as $25,000 guaranteed. Several conditions apply.

Contact the organizer. GoFundMe recommends that anyone with questions about a campaign write a message to the organizer. If you still have questions, contact GoFundMe.

Do your homework. Get as much information as you can about who created the campaign and where the money will go, said Evan Zullow, an attorney in the FTC's Division of Financial Practices.

Search the names of the beneficiary and the campaign organizer. Can you see through their social media profiles that they appear to know each other? Did either person recently create a social media profile? That could indicate that something is off, according to Adrienne Gonzalez.

GoFundMe says cases of fraud are rare and make up less than 0.1 percent of all campaigns.

The majority of GoFundMe campaigns are for individuals' own benefit or for an immediate family member's benefit and raise less than $900, Gordon, the GoFundMe's safety manager, said.

When fraud attempts occur, they tend to fall into two main categories: outright lies or what the company calls beneficiary risk.

"There are instances where we see people lie to their families, friends, communities, media about a medical condition they don't really have," Gordon said. "That happens. That will happen whether it's on GoFundMe or off-line."

In the "beneficiary risk" cases, the reason the page was created is legitimate, but the funds are not headed to the correct person.

A sudden windfall of money raised through a GoFundMe campaign can spark a family dispute.

"We often see that the biggest fraud is by friends and family after there's all of a sudden money there when there never used to be money there," Gordon said.

The FBI says it has seen a small increase in reports of fraud related to fundraising websites.

"As crowdfunding sites increase in popularity, there has been a minor uptick in instances of fraud stemming from use of these platforms," a spokeswoman said in a statement.

D.C. police, the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. and the Office of the Attorney General for D.C. all said they had no recent theft or fraud cases related to crowdfunding. Police in Arlington County, Virginia, and Prince George's County, Maryland, said the same.

D.C. residents can report complaints to the Office of the Attorney General for D.C. "You definitely should complain to us if you live in the District and feel like you've been scammed by one of these, so we can take action," spokesman Robert Marus said.

A GoFundMe page created by an Arizona man had received more than $74,000 as of midday Tuesday for the family of Robert Godwin Sr. GoFundMe confirmed the page is legitimate.
Photo credit: GoFundMe